>Also, always comes from people who don't/didn't live there
You'd be surprised. E.g.:
https://www.economist.com/europe/2017/10/12/many-eastern-eur...
"Since communist nostalgia is a growing phenomenon in Eastern Europe today, it has different ways of manifesting itself amongst post-communist citizens. Nostalgic types are quite particular in their reverence for the past and share different things they are nostalgic about (this is shown in their electoral support for communist and socialist parties). Most of these individuals are nostalgic for job security, free education and reliable and affordable healthcare. This is because most Eastern Europeans remember and long for the vast social programmes and services that are no longer offered under capitalism."
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/kurt-biray/...
"The poll showed 30 percent of Ukrainians approved of the change to democracy in 2009, down from 72 percent in 1991. In Bulgaria and Lithuania the slide was to just over half the population from nearer three-quarters in 1991."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-communism-nostalgia/speci...
You just get 2x of famines, mass executions and freedom impairment.
Or maybe 3x since communist regimes tend to be more violent than colonial regimes.
You also can't colonize yourself but you can install communism and suffer famines, mass executions and no freedom.
You can say that Eastern Europe didn't have famines or mass executions after WW2. But hey, Russians still did!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1946%E2%80%93...
I don't think I've ever heard anyone defend imperialism by saying that it wasn't true capitalism.